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Should Gov. Greitens resign? New polling shows voters think so

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A new set of polling conducted by The Missouri Times shows that roughly half of Missouri’s voters have an unfavorable opinion of Gov. Eric Greitens, and more think he should step down from office.

A survey of 868 likely Missouri general election voters in 2018 shows that 27 percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of the embattled Republican Governor, who has been indicted on a charge of felony invasion of policy. But 51 percent of those polled cited an unfavorable opinion, and even more noteworthy, 53 percent of those same polled citizens said they believed Greitens should resign from office. 33 percent said they did not believe he should step down, while another 15 percent said they were unsure.

Of those polled, 52 percent of the women asked whether their opinion of the Governor was favorable said it was not, compared to a nearly equal percentage of 50 percent of men who also cited unfavorable opinions.

51 percent of Republicans still said they had a favorable opinion, while just six percent said the same. 76 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of Republicans held an unfavorable opinion, along with 55 percent of independent voters.

The margin of error for this poll, conducted between February 25 and 26, is +/- 3.3 percent.

Statewide Poll Results

Question: What is your opinion of Eric Greitens?
Favorable: 27%
Unfavorable: 51%
No Opinion: 22%

Question: Do you think Eric Greitens should resign from office?
Yes: 53%
No: 33%
Not Sure: 15%

Table 1: Opinion of Greitens by Gender

Candidate

Male

Female

Favorable

28%

25%

Unfavorable

50%

52%

No Opinion

22%

22%

Table 2: Opinion of Greitens by Party

Candidate

Republican

Democrat

Independent

Favorable

51%

6%

19%

Unfavorable

27%

76%

55%

No Opinion

22%

17%

26%

 

The poll also took a closer look by turning to voters in Senate District 17, one of the last true purple districts in the state and the site of the next special election.

In the November 2016 general election, Clay County voters supported Greitens by a narrow margin, who won the county with 48.9 percent of the vote, compared to Democratic challenger Chris Koster’s 47.6 percent.

But the numbers in SD 17 seem to mirror that of the statewide polls.

Of the 560 likely voters surveyed, with a +/- 4 percent margin, once again, 27 percent showed favor to Greitens. Similarly, 50 percent said they were unfavorable, with 23 percent having no opinion.

The numbers in regard to whether the Governor should resign also showed similar numbers to those of the statewide numbers, with 55 percent saying yes and 31 percent saying no.

SD 17 RESULTS

Question: What is your opinion of Eric Greitens?
Favorable: 27%
Unfavorable: 50%
No Opinion: 23%

Question: Do you think Eric Greitens should resign from office?
Yes: 55%
No: 31%
Not Sure: 14%

One week later, those numbers seem to be confirmed by another poll, this time from Missouri Scout, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research.

Of 800 likely voters, 46 percent said the Governor should resign, compared to 37 percent who disagreed with that sentiment.

53 percent of those polled cited unfavorable opinions toward the embattled Governor, while 29 percent said they still felt favorably. It marks the second set of polling in the past two weeks in which the Governor has failed to receive more than one in three Missourians’ approval.